Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2012 fourth quarter ended September 29, 2012. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $36.0 billion and quarterly net profit of $8.2 billion, or $8.67 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $28.3 billion and net profit of $6.6 billion, or $7.05 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 40.0 percent compared to 40.3 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 60 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

The Company sold 26.9 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 58 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 14.0 million iPads during the quarter, a 26 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 4.9 million Macs during the quarter, a 1 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 5.3 million iPods, a 19 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

Apple’s Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $2.65 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on November 15, 2012, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on November 12, 2012.

“We’re very proud to end a fantastic fiscal year with record September quarter results,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, in the press release. “We’re entering this holiday season with the best iPhone, iPad, Mac and iPod products ever, and we remain very confident in our new product pipeline.”

“We’re pleased to have generated over $41 billion in net income and over $50 billion in operating cash flow in fiscal 2012,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2013, we expect revenue of about $52 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $11.75.”

Apple Inc.’s cash and marketable securities at end of quarter totaled $121.3 billion.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected Apple to report fourth-quarter revenue of $35.8 billion and earnings of $8.75 a share.

On July 24th, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer provided Q412 guidance of “revenue of about $34 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $7.65.”

Trading in Apple (AAPL) shares has been halted and will resume at 4:50pm EDT.

If those analysts are dumb enough to ignor this, “Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2013, we expect revenue of about $52 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $11.75.”

They are retarded. Please someone tell me how those numbers stack up to any company today. ANY?! Hello MS, Amazon, Google?

Earnings : always dangerous. I feel sorry for the buy and hold investors. Should’ve taken profit when Apple reached its high point. Depending on what it does the next couple of days you can reenter AAPL. That’s what I will be doing. Always, always, always take profit when you are ahead by a considerable amount. Then just be patient and wait to reenter. All stocks will give you that opportunity. Even Apple. Apple will probably go back up although it’s future is a little less rosy than it has been. But that’s to be expected with a stock that has ramped up this high. But there was no reason to be a buy and hold investor and have to ride the roller coaster down and then hope you can go back up to where you were a month ago. That’s just plain silly. Just look at all the upside profit you are now going to miss! As I’ve said before, bragging about holding any equity forever is just foolish. Even Apple. Learn to take profit, that’s why you invest. Not to brag. Good luck going forward.

Quite the contrary. Simply take profit at different times during your investing. It’s pretty obvious that if you owned AAPL for a long period of time the last 30 days have been devastating. Correct? Apple reaches its all time high and you don’t take some or all of it off the table? Just think about that for a second or two……………………… there, now you see the light. it’s not market timing, it’s not daytrading, it’s not speculating, it’s investing! Amateur is a term used for people who are inexperienced and do not know what they are doing. That would describe those who foolishly saw Apple at its all time high and decided to just keep it all in Apple. Your main goal in investing his profit. It’s just that simple. Please quit trying to defend holding AAPL forever as though it won’t go down. Please quit acting like a fanboy. Amateurs and professionals both understand what the word profit means. Why did you get into AAPL to begin with? For fun? To brag to everybody that you own AAPL and have held it forever? You have missed the opportunity to invest in AAPL at nearly $100 cheaper than it was 30 days ago! It didn’t take a professional or a genius to know that Apple was it it’s all-time high and anyone with half a brain and one eye knows to take profit at that point. It’s just common sense. Did you think it was going to keep going to 800 to 900 to 1000? There’s nothing wrong with being an amateur investor but you have to understand your goal. Your goal is to make money with your money. It’s not about bragging about owning AAPL stock. The next time you are way ahead in AAPL or any other stock, take some off the table. Maybe take it all off the table. Paper profit is just that,paper. You can’t pay the bills with paper profit. You can be up 300% in AAPL but it doesn’t matter at all until you are holding it in your hot little hand. Please, learn to cash in some chips when you are ahead. Even amateurs know to do that.

Weekend,
You aren’t necessarily wrong or right on taking profit periodically. It depends on what one expects and what one does with the profit.

If Apple is at 700 and I expect it to reach 840 (20% gain) at some point in the future AND I believe that it is the best combination of risk and return for me, then selling some or all and taking a profit will only make sense if I can buy back in at a low enough price. I may incur capital gains tax (15%) and possibly state income tax (5% in IL) on the profit, and I may have buy/sell transaction costs. So I’d have to either be able to offset capital gains against losses on other long term investments or be sure of at least a 20% drop in the stock price in order to buy back in. Yes I will have to pay capital gains tax on it eventually, but the net present value of those future taxes is less than the actual taxes would be today.

Research shows that timing the market doesn’t work for most people. They end up losing or making less money than non active holders. As for taking profit, it’s great if you have some use of the money. Otherwise, there is no guarantee you’ll buy at a lower price and cover your taxes.

Research? What research would that be? Quoted from what? Again, it’s not market timing. You have to realize that at some point you have to take profit when the stock has reached its all time high in particular. That’s not market timing, that’s just common sense. Of course you will be able to reenter at a lower point. Simply check the 10 year chart for AAPL. It does not go left to right in a continuous 45° angle. But hey, you do what you feel is best. I’ll be buying back in at least $95 cheaper than it was one month ago when I pulled my money out. That’s hardly market timing. You just had to know that Apple was going to tank because it always does before earnings and product releases. So it was a simple easy decision. And very profitable. And if I’m lucky enough to have it run up again, I’ll take profit out again. Because I like to make money. And you don’t have to be a daytrader or do market timing. And options are a much better choice with a stock as expensive as AAPL. Much more upside opportunity. Good luck.

Exactly…I got in at $15 and could have taken profit at $45 a share but why? I don’t need the cash at the moment and any instrument I would put it in is less likely to serve a positive investment purpose than Apple.

You don’t really expect anyone on this site to believe that you bought AAPL at seven dollars do you? C’mon, even the fanboys know better than that. Nice try. And oh by the way, taking profit occasionally is still basic 101 investing. No matter what your entry price point is! Good luck.